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FLASHCARDS .............................................................................................. 5
THE LEARNING GAME ..................................................................................................................................5
PLAYING THE NOTES ...................................................................................................................................5
INTERVALS .................................................................................................. 9
BASIC INTERVALS.......................................................................................................................................10
ALTERED INTERVALS .................................................................................................................................11
CHORD THEORY........................................................................................ 20
REHEARSING THE CHORDS......................................................................................................................20
ROCK AND JAZZ TERMINOLOGY ..............................................................................................................20
FUNCTIONAL HARMONY / DIATONIC TRIADS .........................................................................................21
SEVENTH CHORDS (4 PARTS) ..................................................................................................................22
SIXTH CHORDS (4 / 5 PARTS)....................................................................................................................23
SUS CHORDS ..............................................................................................................................................23
CHORDS WITH ADDED NOTES .................................................................................................................24
CHORDS WITH BASS NOTE.......................................................................................................................24
EXTENDED CHORDS ..................................................................................................................................25
NINTH CHORDS (5 PARTS) ........................................................................................................................26
DOUBLE-ALTERED CHORDS .....................................................................................................................27
ELEVENTH CHORDS (6 PARTS) ................................................................................................................27
THIRTEENTH CHORDS (7 PARTS) ............................................................................................................28
STACKED CHORDS .....................................................................................................................................29
POLYCHORDS .............................................................................................................................................29
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Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 4, General Introduction
General Introduction
This chapter of the Electric Bass deals with some heavy theoretical stuff. It is divided
into Scales (Flashcards, Intervals, Advanced Scales) and Chords (Chord Theory,
Chord Dictionary). Flashcards and Intervals are obligatory for all bass players, no
matter what style they play - Jazz, Rock, Salsa, Reggae or High Life. The Advanced
Scales chapter is primarily targeted at jazz musicians. The Chord Theory is
obligatory for all bass players, containing lots of examples of guitar chords, as you
will have to be able to play rather professionally on a guitar in order to understand
the bass and its role in the orchestra regard the Chord Dictionary chapter as a mini
course in advanced rhythm guitar playing.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 5, Flashcards
Flashcards
Flashcards are widespread memory games used by students in disciplines as
mathematics, language and music alike. You have a set of card covering a certain
subject, in our case the names of the notes of the fretboard for each string. The idea
is to learn the positions and names by heart in order to play fluently across the whole
neck.
Q: What is Tablature???
A: The tablature is a 500 years old alternative notation system for stringed
instruments like basses and guitars. Opposite to the prevailing music notation,
tablature uses the strings with numbers (in the renaissance: letters) to show the
individual notes, their pitch and their exact placing on the guitar. This is can be
a great advantage for the player, but it can limit your fantasy, as traditional
notation does not tell you which string and fret to play, for example an E note,
leaving it up to own your talent and style. For transcription of famous solos etc
though, the tablature is a must. After 20 year in obscurity, the tablature is now
(year 2001) very common among young guitarists but do not forget to learn
the traditional notes too!
Intervals
The building bricks of all scales and chords are named Intervals. You can read more
about Interval theory in the All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ/1 Music Theory, chapter
Harmony. In this book, you will find a number of ways to employ the intervals on the
bass. As usual, it is important to rehearse the theoretical stuff in real life, i.e. with
your fingers, so try to play the intervals immediately after reading about them.
The distance between 2 frets (marks on the neck on a fretless bass) is half a note step.
Each octave is divided into 12 steps.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 10, Intervals
BASIC INTERVALS
*)
Enharmonic Notes, see All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ/1 Music Theory
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 11, Intervals
ALTERED INTERVALS
In jazz, the intervals are often altered, i.e. diminished or augmented. Learn the names by heart
and do not be confused by the somewhat misleading naming convention, which is a parallel to
the illogical functional harmonic system in Jazz (I, II, III etc.).
Advanced Scales
In the All Aspects of ROCK & JAZZ/1 Music Theory, you can find the theoretical
basis of scales. In this section, we will work with the advanced scales used in Jazz
music.
The Major Pentatonic Scale is similar to the Major Blues without a Fourth and Seventh.
DIMINISHED HANDS
All Diminished scales are based on stacked minor thirds. In jazz, you distinguish between
Diminished Half Step and Whole Step Scales.
Diminished scales are symmetrical, parallel scales. In reality, only three keys exist, C, C# and D
each divided into 4 stacked minor thirds.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 14, Advanced Scales
WHOLE-TONE HAND
The whole-tone scale (Debussy Scale) is a neutral, symmetric scale. Only two keys exist, C
and C#.
Whole-tone Scale
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 15, Advanced Scales
NOTE The modes are named with a pseudo key, in Major, Minor or Diminished. The
names are only guidelines, as for example a D minor Dorian, is not a normal minor but a
church mode, which happens to look a bit like a minor scale.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 16, Advanced Scales
Locrian #2 Mode is used for playing over minor chords with flattened fifths.
Super Locrian Mode (Altered Scale) This mode is also called the altered scale, and this
name is used in the section Application of Scales to Chords.
Lydian Augmented Mode is used over major chords with augmented fifth.
A variation of the above artificial mode is the Lydian Dominant Mode used over dominant
chords.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 18, Application of Scales to Chords
You can of course choose to play in only one scale all through tune, but this tends to sound a little
boring if you do it all the time. Country and Folk Music tends to use the standard scale all the time,
but both Rock and Jazz have always used lots of strange scales to the chords. It is up to you and
your personal style.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 20, Chord Theory
Chord Theory
The basic Chord form is the Triad. It consists of three notes played at the same time.
Extended chords are triads with one or more added colour notes. See All Aspects
of ROCK & JAZZ /1 Music Theory, Harmony for all the details of Chord Types,
Functional Harmony, Modal and Sound Aspects in chords.
American Rock
System System
I major T (Tonic)
II minor SDm (Subdominant parallel minor)
III minor Dm (Dominant parallel minor)
IV major SD (subdominant)
V major D (dominant)
VI minor Tm (Tonic parallel minor)
VII diminished -
American Rock
System System
I minor Tm (Tonic parallel minor)
II diminished -
III major T (Tonic)
IV minor SDm (Subdominant parallel minor)
V minor Dm (Dominant parallel minor)
VI major Sd (Subdominant)
VII major D (Dominant)
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 22, Chord Theory
Seventh Chord Types Major 7, minor 7, dominant 7 and minor 7 (b5) (m(b5)7).
Function Seventh Chord Names Imaj7 (T maj7), IImi7 (SDm 7), IIImi7 (Dm 7), IVmaj7
(SD maj7), V7 (D 7), VImi7 (Tm 7), VIImi7(b5).
SUS CHORDS
Suspended chords (sus) are neutral, working well in either major or minor. Traditionally, it is
used for cadences, resolving into a major chord (the suspended note, usually a fourth down to a
major third). In modern rock music, the suspended chords are often used as a background
chords, sometimes mixed with eleventh chords. This way, the gender of the scales are blurred,
making way for both blues, modal and major scales. Typical examples of suspended chords can
be found in the music of Nirvana.
Normally the suspended chords are simply called sus, but in jazz there are two types of
suspension, sus4 and sus2. The latter should rather be called diminished (dim3 for example)
as we are talking about a major third lowered to a second, musical expressions can be illogic).
The two types can actually be seen as two different chords depending on the context either
having the root in the bottom or at the top (fifth note).
D7
C
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 25, Chord Theory
EXTENDED CHORDS
Extended chords are very common in all modern music, rock, jazz, pop, soul etc. Before 1970,
extended chords were mostly played by advanced jazz musicians, but the fusion of rock and
jazz in 1970ies meant a liberation for the somehow stagnated use of chord in rock and soul,
and nowadays you will find event the most complex extended chords in many songs on the
radio or on MTV.
A couple of explanations are needed to understand the construction of extended chords. An
extended chord is a triad with one or more extra colour notes. As the triad chord uses the 1st, 3rd
and 5th note in the scale, the extended notes uses higher number, for example 9th instead of
the 2nd interval, in order to provide a logical, transparent construction of the extensions. In real
life, though, you can place the 9th and all other colour notes where you want, using 2nd / 9th
depending on the circumstances.
The extended high scale steps are named:
9th Major (9), minor (b9) ((-9))or augmented (#9) ((-10)).
11th Perfect (11) or augmented (#11).
13th Major (13) or minor (b13).
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 26, Chord Theory
NOTE In the rock tradition, the m9 chord does not have a minor seventh, it is traditionally played
as a minor chord with a ninth added. The m9 chord understood as the 7 and 9 is written m7+9
in rock.
DOUBLE-ALTERED CHORDS
Jazz Double-altered chords are dominant chords with altered fifth and ninth. These strongly
coloured dominant chords are typical for modern jazz.
The eleventh chords and higher are so complex that they tend to be muddy and dissonant. To
lighten up the sound, the musicians traditionally leave out one or two notes, focussing on the
chords peculiar sound, in this case the eleventh note (or Fourth note) colliding sharply with the
major third with the mild minor seventh to cool of the dissonance.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 28, Chord Theory
STACKED CHORDS
JAZZ Chords build on triads are not the only chords in the world. In the experimental music of
the last century (especially the new classical music and the advanced jazz), the composers used
some new types of chords, based on fourth and fifth, the so-called Stacked Chords. Even
more advanced chords as the polychords are very common in modern jazz and classical
music.
Stacked Chords are used intensely in the jazz wind section, especially in combinations of
saxophones and trumpets / cornets.
TIP The bass to a stacked chord can be any of the notes in the chord, as the stacked chord itself
is neutral.
POLYCHORDS
JAZZ Polychords are one, two or more triads stacked upon each other. For obvious reasons, it is
much easier for a piano player than for a guitar player to use these chords, but if you stick to the
simple variants, it is possible, although you have to reduce the number of notes in the chords.
Bm
C or
Bm/C
C/D
Em / Am
Cm7 / Bb
C7 / D
C7 / F#
C7 / A
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 30, Chord Dictionary
Chord Dictionary
The classical way of representing the chords in a simple graphic form is the chord
box. This tool, used since the early 1920ies, is closely related to the Tablature, but
opposite to the dynamic note-like form of the tablature, the chord box is static. The
following tables show examples of how to produce a chord in different positions on
the fretboard. There are two main types of chord boxes, the open chords and the
movable chords. The latter is the most common in rock and jazz, while the open
chords (except for the golden chords) mostly belong to folk music and classical
guitar music. The chords are grouped into Standard, Extended, Neutral and
Advanced chords.
NOTE Chords marked with golden background are classic open chords.
The golden chords should be learned by heart before you learn any other chord forms!!!
Fret Number In case of movable chords, the basic fret number is shown to the
left of the chord box.
STANDARD CHORDS
Scale Major Minor 6 7 9
C 3 3 2
C#/Db 4 4 4 4 3
D 4
D#/Eb 6 6 6 6 5
E 6
F 1 1 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2 2 2
G 3 3 3 3
G#/Ab 4 4 4 4 4
A 5
A#/Bb 1 1 1 1 6
B 2 2 2 1
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 32, Chord Dictionary
EXTENDED CHORDS, 7
Scale maj7 m7 m(maj7) m7(b5) m7+9
C 3 3 3 3
C#/Db 4 4 4 4 4
D 5
D#/Eb 6 6 6 6 6
F 1 1 1
1
F#/Gb 2 2 2 2
2
G 3 3 3 3
3
G#/Ab 4 4 4 4
4
A 5 5
A#/Bb 1 1 1 1 1
B 2 2 2 2 2
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 33, Chord Dictionary
EXTENDED CHORDS, 9
Scale maj9 m9 (add 9) 7(b9) / -9 7(#9) / -10
C 3 8 2 2
C#/Db 4 9 9 3 3
D 5 10 4
10 4
D#/Eb 6 11 11 5 5
E 0 6
F 1 1 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2 2 2
G 3 3 3 3
3
G#/Ab 4 4 4 4
4
A 5 5 5 5
5
A#/Bb 1 6 6 6 6
B 2 7 7 0 0
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 34, Chord Dictionary
EXTENDED CHORDS, 11
Scale 11 7(#11) m11
C 3 2 3
C#/Db 4 3 4
D 5 4 5
D#/Eb 6 5 6
E 6 7
7
F 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2
G 3 3 3
G#/Ab 4 4 4
A 0 5 5
A#/Bb 1 6 1
B 2 0 2
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 35, Chord Dictionary
EXTENDED CHORDS, 6
Scale 6+7 6+9 6+maj7
C 3 2 3
C#/Db 4
3 4
D 5 4 5
D#/Eb 6 5 6
F 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2
G 3 3 3
G#/Ab 4 4 4
A 5
A#/Bb 1 6 1
B 2 0 2
NOTE The 6+7 chord is normally used as substitute for the 7-notes 13 chord, which cannot be played on a
6-string guitar. See the last Chord Box table for some other fake 13 chords.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 36, Chord Dictionary
C#/Db 4 4 4
D 5 5
D#/Eb 6 6 6
E 7 7 7
F 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2
G 3 3 3
G#/Ab 4 4 4
A 5
A#/Bb 1 1 1
B 2 2 2
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 37, Chord Dictionary
NEUTRAL CHORDS, +
Scale + / #5 7(#5) / +7 +(maj7)
C 8
C#/Db 4 9 1
D#/Eb 6 6 3
E 4
F 8 1 5
F#/Gb 9 2 6
G 3 3 7
G#/Ab 4 4 8
A#/Bb 1 1 1
B 2 2 2
Dear student: Please note that some of these chords can very difficult to play in the start! The problem is not
your fingers, but the chord.
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 38, Chord Dictionary
C#/Db 3 3
D 4 4
D#/Eb 5 5
F 1 1
2 2
F#/Gb
3
G 3
G#/Ab 4 4
A 5 5
A#/Bb 6 1
B 7 2
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 39, Chord Dictionary
C#/Db 4 4 4
D#/Eb 6 6 6
F 1 1 1
F#/Gb 2 2 2
G 3 3 3
G#/Ab 4 4 4
A#/Bb 1 1 1
B 2 2 2
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 40, Chord Dictionary
maj7 Variation
maj7(#11)
13 Chords
13 13 13(#11) m13
Having learned the basics of finger technique, scales and chords, you are now ready
for some real life bass exercises. Dont forget to rehearse minimum 1 hour a day on
the bass and to rehearse your guitar playing. Both instruments are important for your
musical development.
Home
Chapter 4, ADVANCED SCALES AND CHORDS, Page 42, Index Scales and Chords